The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-12-01

S1AAoA grave Al Tue great racine,
where he and all on board his gallant
ship had gone down.
And Fred, who had been his idol
and pride. had come to Cousin Ray's.
to wear cast-of jackets instead of the
trim sai1or-suits which the captain so
proudly bought his boy, and take the
hard crusts of life instead of its plums,
and be
Fred's thoughts had grown so
gloomy that he had to quicken his
steps to shake them off, for now the
shadow of the church-yard frs were
falling on his path, and the old church
clock was striking twelve, and the
moon, peering through . rift of clouds,
had the white, cold look of dead
face.
.'Td just like Hal to try this forfeit
himself" said Fred, grimly, as he
wall-for the ivy-leaves grew on the
further side.
He had TO cut across where the
graves were thickest, and the white
stones cleaned like sheeted forms in
the waning light.
His way lay past his own family lot,
where the young mother who had died
when he was little more than a baby,
lay under the beautiful monument his
father had erected to her memory, and
on whose reverse side some kind friend
had caused to be inscribed:
Sacred also to the Memory of
CAPTAIN FREDERICK CHARLES WHITE,
Lost at Sea
sin the Year 1888
"a Brave Seaman, Loving Father and
Faithful Friend.
This grave was all that Fred had.
10 took lnra1 T1r-idn in l-naY1in0r tho
marble spotless, the mound green.
Every Sunday during the spring and
summer he placed a wreath of fresh
flowers there, and only yesterday he
had laid the years last offering on the
fading grass-a cross of bright au-
tumn berries.
But q graveyard in the Sabbath sun
light is one thing. At twelve o'clock
on wintry Halloween it is altogether
another.
Fred was conscious OF a queer,
creepy feeling, that winged his foot
steps, and he was flying past the ia
miliar spot, when, almost involuntar-
lily, he glanced up, and for one awful
moment every drop of his blood seemed
/ to turn into ice-for there, standing
over his mothers grave, with the wan
moonlight falling upon his barred head,
| was form the boy recognized at
| glance.
It was he who for years had lain
fathoms deep, as every one believed,
beneath the far Pacific's wave.
With wild shrek, Fred fell sense
less before his fathers ghost.
And here, no doubt, a properly-con-
| structed Halloween story should end;
but fancy a score of sensible young
readers asking:
And was it a ghost sure enoughP
And though it does spoil my climax,
I most frankly answer:
mo, it wasn't; not bit of itp'
No ghost ever clasped a frightened
boy in such strong arms, held him
close to such a fast-beating heart,
kissed him with such warm, firm lips.
No ghost ever had the clear, CHEEKY
voice that greeted Freds returning
consciousness.
Have they made a coward of you
my boyP What set you keeling over
like thatP"
And last, but not least, no ghost in
the widest of Halloween legends ever
revisited the ''glimpses of the moon
with pockets containing bank-notes
enough to keep a regiment of Fred's
in jackets of the latest cut for decade
of years.
It would be impossible to describe
he reappeared at the Ray farmhouse
la little shaken and unsteady. still
holding his fathers hand.
Even Harry was content to sink int
insignificance, and sit silent in the cor
ner, listening breathlessly to Captain
Whites story of his wreck and escape
of the two years he had spent among
the savages on Pacific island, whert
no white man ever came-of his fina
rescue by Dutch trader and slow pas
sage home.
II had no idea of finding Fred here,
he continued. ''The teacher of the
school where 1 left him told me tina
he had shipped as cabin-boy with M
old friend Bremen, who I heard wa
trading out in the China Seas. And
intended to start out by the mex
steamer to find them, when, as wa
passing near here, fancy seized me t.
look again upon my poor wifes grave
had only an hour to stop, when luck
or something better, led my boy GU
into the midnight to my very arms
And here you'll stay, won't you young
sterw concluded the captain, placin;
his hand on his sons shoulder. '.Pl
not leave you again, if I can help il
until see you rugged and launched TO
your own voyage on life's sea-"
THAT was a very lucky forfeit c
mine," said Fred, with happy laugh
I'D almost forgotteni but here it is
Harry"
And amid the general cheers an
congratulations, Fred placed his tire
ivy leaves in shame faced Harry
hand.-FGnnie FGGTie tn Golden DGys
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